Board games (and any other games) in winter

We don't have reliable winters here so if we get ten inches of snow then a little ice on top we take advantage of it to hunker down in front of the woodstove reading, playing records and get out the board games. Scrabble is it this week (at least until I win again). Other winters we play backgammon, nine men's morris, wari. Some, like Pente, Go and chess are not my favorites, my brain just doesn't work that way.
When our boys were home we played a lot of card games and some of those "on the table for days" games like Monopoly and Risk. My husband made ancient and foreign wooden board games for a number of years so we were always learning new ones like "UR" and senet.

Do you play any of these? any others?

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"In the garden of gentle sanity, May you be bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness.” ~ Chogyam Trungpa

We played Euchre every night quite awhile ago...fun game but I don't remember how to play...have to dig out the Hoyle.
I got my husband and two teenage sons to play my old Barbie game one winter...hilarious.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"In the garden of gentle sanity, May you be bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness.” ~ Chogyam Trungpa

Rion Mather

Posts: 644

2

posted 5 years ago

Barbie? Oh, you have to post a picture of that one! I never knew there was a barbie game.

They're selling "Settlers of Catan" at Target these days--highly recommended. It may be the best board game ever. Enough chance to give everyone a chance to win and enough strategy to keep it very interesting.

All games are a trade-off between strategy and chance. Chess is pure strategy, and CandyLand is pure chance.

I really like Labyrinth. Recently I've been playing the jr. version with my kids, and while I like the regular one better, the jr. one is still fun for adults. I'm going to try playing the original version with the kids soon. I think the 10-year-old is ready for it, and her sister, who is 6, is so good at Jr. Labyrinth that I suspect she'll be able to handle the more complicated one.

Well, We've never bought a new game but now I want to go looking for the Settlers of Catan, Labyrinth and The Wildcraft one. Our grandchildren play a lot of board games and cards...I'll have to see if they already have any of these...I know they have scategories and probably Labyrinth.
I am on a losing streak playing scrabble...time to move on I think.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"In the garden of gentle sanity, May you be bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness.” ~ Chogyam Trungpa

The only thing about winter play, is that it's much more fun to play if you have at least 4 or more people, which may not be the norm on a snowy day.
I laughed out loud when I read the rules web page (above) that says that it "gets out of hand" if five or more people play!
Because that's the way our family REALLY likes to play it (a fast free-for-all with no turns and lots of competition!)

I especially recommend it if you have a group with small kids (5 years old and up) and adults, total group about 6 to 8. Then you can pair each kid with an adult partner. The kid partner has the responsibility of watching for a chance to play just the one card off the pair's Peanuts pile (aka Nerts pile), while the adult does all the rest of the demanding fast work of trying to play out cards. This makes for lots of teamwork. The kids have one of the most important jobs, and there's lots of opportunity for the adults to help, coach and joke with their kid partners. And the adults can help the kids to reach down the long dining room table, to play their cards.

One thing we insist on, that makes it more fun, is how we turn over the cards in the stock pile, 3 cards at a time (just like in solitaire).We do this using a "flip".
That is: hold the stock pile in your left hand, slide the top card off with right hand's thumb into your right hand; then repeat with the next 2 cards, and flip the resulting 3 cards in your right hand over, to reveal the card you can play. (Please forgive the right-hand bias). You'll get why this is more fun, once you play.

You can see the whole thing demonstrated as "Squeek" on Youtube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6ssLI51RZ4 This family is faster than mine, and there isn't as much good-natured yelling as there is at our house. And they play the Peanuts pile face up (what's up with that?!).
Watch the player to the lower right of your screen -- it's easy to see him doing doing the "flip".

I guess you can tell by now that I REALLY like this game! And that this post definitely belongs in the meaningless drivel forum!

Mariamne, I've got to figure your game out before we visit our grandkids...it sounds like something they would love. My grand daughters taught us to play "spoons"...too speedy for me but fun...a card game where at a certain point you race to grab the spoon..I don't remember the game very well, it's been a long time since we played it, but It is probably on you tube also.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"In the garden of gentle sanity, May you be bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness.” ~ Chogyam Trungpa

Mariamne Ingalls

pollinator

Posts: 166

Location: NE Ohio (Zone 6a, on the cusp of 6b) 38.7" annual precip

27

posted 5 years ago

X
2

Hi Judith-

Great, re: Peanuts with the grandkids, in future!

Thanks for reminding me of spoons: yes, it is fast, and similar hilarity ensues.

Here's actual play: a youtube video of a nice-looking bunch, inciting each other to questionable behavior. (This has some high production values!)
Note this fam says you wait for "three of a kind" to grab a spoon, rather than four, as stated in the rules page. But I think this would still be legal in most states. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1nUkMgG558

Carcassonne is a great tile-laying euro-style (http://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Eurogame) game for 2 to 6 players and when you get used to playing the main game you can get additional tiles and extra expansions which take the game to new levels.

This is about the only game we play repeatedly and there are not a lot of rules to learn, it gets a bit tricky at the adding up stage in the end but it is easy enough to get the hang of.

Yes, Carcassonne is a marvelous game as well. FYI, there are kids' versions of both Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne. They are simpler than the originals, but still fun, with the same high quality physical parts as all European style games. (If you haven't played a game made for German consumers, you may be surprised at the richness of the color printing, the thickness of any cardboard and the heft of wooden playing pieces.)

so, don't laugh, this is only coincidence but our favorite game with the grandkids lately has been "Apples to Apples" the junior version because some are younger but still lots of fun. It covers a lot of words and meanings and has just enough competition to keep it interesting.
Playing "Skip-bo" with another grand.......junior version also.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"In the garden of gentle sanity, May you be bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness.” ~ Chogyam Trungpa

I have to put my vote in for Settlers of Cataan. My friends and I would play it to death, every night until 3 AM most nights, when we were in university. I still get a hankerin' any time I get three potential players together.

My girlfriend would be the one to ask. Her family has a love of boardgames that outmatches any I have ever seen. I played my first game of an old James Bond game from the 70s I think just this spring. They have a basement and an attic full, floor to ceiling in places, with old and ancient board games and puzzles.

She grew up in Cochrane, Ontario, an eight hour drive north of Toronto, and well practiced at snow days. They've had like 4 already this season, and we've barely seen flurries here.

-CK

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein

Judith Browning wrote:We've read the books, well not the third one yet since it's still not finished, but the first two and also 'The Slow Regard of Silent Things' which is really my favorite !

You've given me the perfect gift idea for Steve....thank you!

Yeah, we're all waiting for that third book! Luckily the first two stand up to multiple rereads - there is so much there that you miss the first time. Another gift idea is the new 10th Anniversary Edition of The Name of the Wind, which is very beautiful. It has red ink on the edges of the pages (like a bible) and it's full of illustrations and has extra stuff at the back about currency and the maps and such.

I am ashamed to say that I've only played Tak a couple of times. It is a fun game, I need to get my husband playing it (but I know he'll beat me, maybe that's why I'm hesitating).

Judith Browning wrote:We've read the books, well not the third one yet since it's still not finished, but the first two and also 'The Slow Regard of Silent Things' which is really my favorite !

You've given me the perfect gift idea for Steve....thank you!

Yeah, we're all waiting for that third book! Luckily the first two stand up to multiple rereads - there is so much there that you miss the first time. Another gift idea is the new 10th Anniversary Edition of The Name of the Wind, which is very beautiful. It has red ink on the edges of the pages (like a bible) and it's full of illustrations and has extra stuff at the back about currency and the maps and such.

I am ashamed to say that I've only played Tak a couple of times. It is a fun game, I need to get my husband playing it (but I know he'll beat me, maybe that's why I'm hesitating).

While waiting on the third book be sure and read 'the slow regard of silent things'...it is so good. and be sure to read his explanation of why he wrote it. I think a lot of his fans were upset that he took the time to write that and hadn't finished the third book yet. It's all about Auri and probably wouldn't stand alone if someone hadn't read the first two.

I have to focus on young child gifts now...don't tempt me with more games...haha....a five year old gr. grand who loves dinosaurs and Captain America and twin almost three year olds who are open to anything...and a seven year old and one who's eleven...the teens are easy, we just get them a card and some cash.

I should go back through this thread and see what might be good for some of them. I do have plenty of Paul's playing cards and the Food Forest game for older folks. And I ordered a deck of Micah (willie's son) Nelson's gnome cards (particle kid web site). I need to stay focused on the young ones and on budget now

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"In the garden of gentle sanity, May you be bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness.” ~ Chogyam Trungpa

Okay, that Tak game based on the Rothfuss books looks so awesome. It inspired me to look for a books thread to talk more about those books. See What Are You All Reading, page 2 of the thread, for links and more about the Rothfuss books. Some HUGE book joy there, to be sure.

I finally stepped away from the computer to play a game with Fred and Kara the other night, and I really enjoyed it! Kara said she prefers this game to Settlers of Cataan. It was Fred's game, and there are expansion packs as well as simpler or more complicated ways to play.

You build the board like a puzzle, with tiles that have cities, roads, fields and/or monasteries, and you get points by your "meeples" (or followers or little person game pieces) claiming certain parts of what is built as the game goes along. So, there are similarities to Cataan, but no Robber. :-)